Tommy Robinson To Speak at Jimas-Suffolk College Holocaust Memorial Day.

EVENT IN COLLEGE CANCELLED (update)

JIMAS would like to invite you to the Holocaust Memorial Day event organised in association with the Suffolk New College & University Campus Suffolk chaplaincy.

This is a free event to be opened by Professor Dave Muller, Principal of Suffolk New College. The event will include a buffet, short presentations, panel discussion, and a question and answer session with a variety of participants.

Muhammad Manwar Ali (Abu Muntasir) of the extremely controversial Jimas is given on the printed leaflet as the main figure involved in the event.

This site leaves it to others to comment on this event, the involvement of people from an extreme Islamist background, now associated with the Quilliam think-tank, and its relevance to Holocaust Memorial Day.

“When Robinson was questioned by The Guardian about having in the past blamed “‘every single Muslim’ for ‘getting away’ with the 7 July bombings, and for calling Islam a fascist and violent religion, he held up his hands and said: ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.'” Robinson also said he would now give evidence to the police to help their investigation of racists within the EDL. Robinson added that “his future work would involve taking on radicalism on all fronts, although he could not support anti-fascist groups because they also subscribed to ‘communism’ or were ‘anarchists’.

I am really looking forward to this event. I think Mr Coates has misunderstood the importance of what Jimas has organised, and by doing this, Mr Coates has not only belittled the importance of respecting the Holocaust Memorial Day, but also is trying to draw the attention away from the main speaker – Mr Frank Bright, who is without any doubt being granted the main focus of the event.

This was the update I received to my invitation:

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Further to JIMAS’ original invitation here is some update and clarification about the HMD event.

This is now organised by JIMAS only in an alternative venue in Ipswich. The College or the UCS are no longer involved. JIMAS will confirm the venue to delegates once it is able.

The theme is “Journeys”.
The initial half an hour is for Holocaust survivor Mr. Frank Bright. The other speakers have been specially chosen for their journeys in life. The contributors will highlight through short reflections on the horrors of the holocaust with a clear rejection of being contributory to any ideology or thinking that supports hatred against any people leading to violence and then genocide.

It will not be about hate crimes, terrorism, Muslim extremism and such types of narrowed but important concerns but to give a powerful and outright message of “Never Again”. It does not seek to highlight issues of today about racial hatred and how they need to be tackled.

The eight speakers are each expected to reflect for very short periods with the rest of the time for Questions & Answers and any comments from the delegates, prayers, any video clips, silence/remembrance/reflection, declaration/pledge.

Hi Mr Coates, thank you for your response.
Perhaps you can contact Jimas / Mr Ali for “inside info”, I’m sure they will speak openly to you about any reasons the college has pulled out. I know they did invite you several times before, so I’m sure they will still be open to it. Why not ask to attend the event?

As for me, I am just an individual (and not really an important one actually, I just enjoy working with the community), but I’d be happy to sit with you at this event and have a chat about your concerns if you’re up for it?

The one thing that I do disagree with in your response, is you speaking as if you know of respecting the Holocaust more than Mr Frank Bright. He himself has agreed to be seated with each and every one on that list. From what I can tell, the theme “Journeys” implies that it is not “Destinations” or “Beginnings”, but more along the lines that people can change during their journeys in life – condemning and judging them before allowing an opportunity to improve is a prejudiced and bigoted view in itself.

I personally know many reformed gangsters and even murderers who are now helping in the community (voluntarily) and really making a difference and having a positive impact on other people. If people judged them without giving them a chance, would this still be the case? They regret what they have done, they have their own journeys, but do you only judge them on their past and not their present (or even future)? Have you NEVER done anything in your life that hurt someone – would you like to be judged and hated on that until you die?

I pray that you will open your heart and mind to seeing the good and potential in people one day.

It is distasteful that you keep avoiding the issue of Tommy Robinson and make the claim (which is absent from anything that I have written on this meeting) that I assert any special knowledge of the Shoah.

As to the other main point.

Jimas have never invited me to anything.

Some of them did talk to me at a Hope Not Hate Meeting – after justifying their march with the EDL.

In the past they managed to develop a fantasy that I had had a ‘meeting’ with them.

After the Hope not Hate meeting they even claimed at one point that they invited me to a ‘debate’ with them.

Mr Coates, I hope I can address your feeling that I am avoiding anything.

I have no personal problem against Tommy Robinson, and I look forward to seeing him in a different setting where he is not in the spotlight. So I am attending with respect and have no problem with him, Mr Frank Bright is the focus and he has no problem with him. However, you are NOT attending, but seem to want to stir this all up and disrespect the event? Would you attend this Shoah Memorial event if Tommy Robinson was not on the list? Or is this just a personal attack based on prejudice and you have no respect for the focus of the event anyway?

I was worried about your claim, so I had to check and have verified that Mr Ali of jimas indeed did invite you in front of 2 people I know and trust – at that very meeting you mentioned – the irony is they said it was about discussing the other “meeting” that I think you are mentioning – so it could have all been resolved if you just took the time to talk to him/them.

I do advise that you update your understanding of the word “cult”, as by definition you are actually posting and “discussing concerns with a cult” right here on this blog on an ongoing basis.

In the end, readers can make up their own minds. Most of your comments have a very common theme of prejudice and hate, and it doesn’t take much reading to see that. At my age I have seen many people end up like you, but also many who eventually outgrew it as they got older and more mature, and Godwilling one day you will also leave the bitterness behind and see good in all types of people.

Although – or perhaps it is because – I know both Andrew Coates and Manwar Ali, I have no wish to comment on the explicit intentions or inner motivations of either (I’d rather keep my ignornace to myself!).

I do, however, wish to raise two questions.

I went to the HMD website and in the ‘about’ section this is what it said:

“The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) is the charity which promotes and supports Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD). 27 January is the day for everyone to remember the millions of people killed in the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. 27 January marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp”.

Please can someone explain to me how the list of speakers at the above event, aside from Mr Frank Bright, have any especial experiences or insights to share from the Holocaust and the other genocides listed above? If they do not, what is the criteria for their involvement?

Secondly, the HMD site lists all the activities associated with the commemoration of this year’s day. I can see mention of the SIFRE-organised exhibition at UCS, but not the JIMAS event;

This is getting serious, Islamophobia Watch is now covering the story, (Extracts)

“The Islamic charity Jami’at Ihya Minhaj al Sunnah (JIMAS) announced last week that on 27 January it would be holding a Holocaust Memorial Day event at Suffolk New College in Ipswich. The lineup of speakers included, of all people, former English Defence League leader Stephen Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”).

You might wonder how any self-respecting Islamic organisation could possibly have invited an individual with Lennon’s record of inciting anti-Muslim hatred to speak at one of their events. Didn’t JIMAS realise that, for all Quilliam’s dishonest efforts to present him as an ex-extremist, Lennon still obstinately defends his actions as leader of the EDL?”

“JIMAS announced that their HMD event was to be opened by Professor Dave Muller, Principal of Suffolk New College, so it clearly had the official support of that institution. But this was evidently before they found out who would be on the platform. According to a report on Andrew Coates’s blog, the college has now cancelled the event.

However JIMAS have circulated an email stating that they intend to find an alternative venue. So it seems that the HMD event may go ahead anyway. You can contact JIMAS here.”

1) Firstly, I find it rather odd that an organisation like JIMAS, and an individual (Manwar Ali), responsible for the publication of numerous bigoted, homophobic and anti-Semitic publications, as well as the promotion of speakers who have voiced bigoted, homophobic and anti-Semitic sentiments (see here), should be given a platform at a public university on Holocaust Memorial Day, of all occasions, to polish their dodgy credentials.

2) The depressing ubiquity of moral relativism: e.g. the inability of newspapers and commentators to distinguish between a bigot and a convicted murderer.